keep calm and hit Bloodlust

Plans; or, Suck It, Pirates

After talking to Ratshag, by which I mean mostly talking at Ratshag while he ignored my mathspeaks and did things that were actually interesting, I believe I have a plan now: Operation Grind Pirates â€˜til My Eyes Bleed.

Currently my reputation with the Steamwheedle Cartel is as follows:

Ratchet: 9138/36000 Hated

Gadgetzan: 8578/36000 Hated

Everlook: 8055/36000 Hated

Booty Bay: 8055/36000 Hated

I’m totally a popular guy. So here’s the facts. For the first part of the reputation grinds:

I’m not grinding Knot Thimblejack runs. I may regret it later, but I need to be able to set foot in goblin towns, and honestly - doing speed runs through DM to kill just the bosses to get Gordok Shackle Keys is not getting me any more librams than just wandering in and slaughtering everything willy-nilly - in fact, it’s getting me less.

Killing pirates outside Ratchet nets me approximately 6000 rep per hour with Ratchet, because I can do it at top speed. Also, Baron Longshore is kind enough to simply count as 5 pirates. They also stop giving rep once I hit Revered with Ratchet. Keeping that in mind, I’m looking at having to kill approximately 10,771 Southsea Freebooters outside Ratchet, which will consume nearly 9 hours of my life.

Since these pirates also yield 2.5 reputation with the other 3 Steamwheedle factions when killed, I’ll gain approximately 26,926 rep with the other 3 as well.

So after finishing up Ratchet, where does that leave us, approximately?

Ratchet: 3/21000 Revered

Gadgetzan: 35504/36000 Hated

Everlook: 34981/36000 Hated

Booty Bay: 34981/36000 Hated

Well, uh, almost 1/4 of the way there!

Now it’s off to Gadgetzan. Here, killing the Southsea Pirates again nets me 5 rep a pirate until revered; again, Andre Firebeard is nice enough to count as 5 pirates. If I get bored I can go kill Wastewander Bandits, but unless there’s something I’m forgetting, they’re actually more spread out and would slow down my rep gain in Tanaris (3000/hr max) even more. Plus, Caliph Scorpidsting only counts as 3 pirates. Borrrrring (comparatively). Southsea it is.

Once again, we kill pirates! Luckily, it’s a lot fewer pirates to get to revered with Gadgetzan, thanks to all that grinding in Tanaris. I have to kill exactly 5500 pirates in Tanaris - approximately 10 hours. This tips me over into Revered with Gadgetzan, and adds another heap of rep to the other 3.

How much, approximately?

Ratchet: 13,753/21000 Revered

Gadgetzan: 4/21000 Revered

Everlook: 3731/6000 Friendly

Booty Bay: 3731/6000 Friendly

Well, not bad. Ratchet is well on its way. If I killed another 2900 pirates in Tanaris (and really, after I’ve killed five and a half thousand, what’s another 2900?), that’d finish off Ratchet - netting me 7,248 rep with the three non-Gadgetzan cities (roughly 2 and a half, maybe 3 hours). Now, approximately:

Ratchet: 1/999 Exalted

Gadgetzan: 4/21000 Revered

Everlook: 4979/12000 Honored

Booty Bay: 4979/12000 Honored

At this point, I have two choices: go back to doing Knot Thimblejack runs, or go back to Ratchet and grind their super-fast pirate rep grind until Everlook and Booty Bay ding exalted. I think I know which one I’m going to pick, don’t you? That’s 28,022 rep (roughly), or another 10 hours, or, in pirates, 11209 pirates. Putting me at:

Ratchet: 1/999 Exalted

Gadgetzan: 999/1000 Exalted

Everlook: 1/999 Exalted

Booty Bay: 1/999 Exalted

Oh, and then I still have to get exalted with Shen’dralar, exalted with Ravenholdt, and exalted with Darkmoon Faire.

Total Body Count: 30,380 pirates
Total Time Spent Just On Steamwheedle Reputation: 43-44 hours